Today is National Signing Day for college football. All of the highly touted prospects sign their paper work and officially commit to play football at good old Whatsamatta U. (No wait, that was Bullwinkle. And where did they find the helmet that fit around his antlers? But I digress). At any rate, hundreds of young men with dreams of gridiron glory celebrate this day. Overwrought fans compare their list of “commits” to Rival U. to see if their school “won” the recruiting battle. Part of the process is a number of websites that evaluate prospects and assign stars to each player based on their perceived talent. A five star prospect is deemed a “can’t miss”. I wonder about the wisdom of giving stars to assign value to young athletes. Yet I confess that I get caught up in the recruiting drama and hope that some big-time players will be wearing the colors of my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes or my adopted Baylor
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On February 2nd they woke up Punxsutawney Phil long enough for the prognosticating rodent to let us know six more weeks of winter must be endured.  Phil looks about as happy as I do when when I am disturbed in the morning. Sixteen years ago a funny and underappreciated  movie came on the scene. Groundhog Day told the story of a self-absorbed news reporter (redundancy alert?) that finds himself stuck in an endless repeat of the same day. Bill Murray is perfect in the role of reporter Phil Connors. Since I live in the odd world of broadcast television I can relate to the cynical personality of Murray’s character. Reporter Phil is less than thrilled that he has been assigned to cover Punxsutawney Phil’s annual peek outside to predict winter’s duration. He feels he is “above” such an inane assignment. Connor’s looks into the camera and cynically reports: “This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a
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The NY Times reported that children who eat dirt as infants and toddlers are actually healthier. Here is an excerpt from that article. In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma. “What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment,” Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, wrote in her new book, “Why Dirt Is Good” (Kaplan). “Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.” I had earlier
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There is a really nasty stomach virus working its way through North Texas. The bug got into my system last night and wreaked considerable havoc. I thought, of course, of the verse in Deuteronomy. Then I prostrated myself before God, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. (Deut. 5) Hopefully this will not last any where close to forty days and nights. The scouting report is that the virus lasts 2 days if you go to the doctor. If you let it run it’s course it lasts 48 hours. I am sitting at home waiting for this to run it’s natural course. I thought of how really lousy I have felt today. And then I realized how much I take for granted the fifty weeks or so out of every year when I feel good or even great. Sure I have the usual little aches and pains
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Regular readers of the humble ramblings know how much I love dog friend Hannah. She is such a calming influence that I often call her “furry Prozac”. A fun article in Parade Magazine by “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan got me to thinking about how much I could learn in my Christian journey from my canine companion. Sanctification is not a word that Hannah would understand. Sadly, it is not a word that a lot of Christians understand either. It simply means the process of becoming more like Jesus. And just like everything else in this journey we can not do that apart from Christ. I will give you Cesar’s thoughts on life lessons that we can learn from dogs in italics. I will add my little spiritual postscript to each of his comments.  Live in the moment. Cesar – People often wonder how I get such quick results with the dogs I rehabilitate. The answer is simple: Dogs live in the moment. They don’t
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Today I saw one more reason to be concerned about the future of America. I picked up the paper and read that Mall Cop was the number one movie in the United States last week. I can’t even process that. Another story made me angry, then sad and finally blessed and encouraged me. That is a lot of plot twists for one news article. If you live outside of the Dallas area you might not have caught up with this story. The Dallas Academy girls basketball team played a road game January 13th against The Covenant School. The girls from Dallas Academy did not expect to win. They haven’t won a game in four seasons. But they did not expect what happened. The box score shows that Covenant scored 35 points in the first quarter before building a 59-0 lead at the half. The score after three quarters was 88-0. The final score was Covenant 100, Dallas Academy 0. Yep. Covenant threw a shut
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Somewhere along the way I got the notion that studying theology was a bit like flossing. Something you had to do whether you liked it or not. And some of the theologians I encountered did not seem like anyone I would actually want to be around on purpose. I made the crack that theologians were to joy in Christ what nutritionists were to enjoying cheesecake. They both took something full of delight and made you feel mostly bad about it. Yet something is changing in my life. I am really seeing the need for a solid theological basis for what I believe. I wrote an ode (cross off “Bucket List” Item Number 87 –  Write Ode) to our lack of theological depth. This classic appears in my book When Bad Christians Happen To Good People. For the music director. A psalm of parody sung to Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World. All rise. Don’t know much about theology, Don’t know much Christology. Don’t know much
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